Notepad Review: Rhodia dotPad

Sometime in spring last year, Rhodia introduced a new addition to their line of notepads, and they called it the dotPad. dotPads are "functional black stapled notepads with a dot grid." Yes, the dotPad has dots – not lines, just dots – tiny, subtle purple dots spaced 5mm apart. According to Rhodia, the dotPads are brilliant alternative to traditional lines and boxes found in other notepads, including some of Rhodia's own, and the dot grid is a favorite for graphic designers, architects, artists and everyone looking for a subtle grid.

When Exaclair VP for Marketing Karen Doherty sent me the J. Herbin 1670 Anniversary ink last November, she included a No. 19 Rhodia dotPad which I called Dottie.

The dotPad's ruling system is new to me. I have never tried paper with dot grid before as I always used lined/ruled paper. My Journal is ruled, the notebooks and notepads I've used in my ink reviews are either lined/ruled or squared. The reason why I've always avoided blank paper is that I find it uncomfortable to write on. Now with Dottie, I can write, do calligraphy, and even draw (and color!) without worrying about my handwriting going to wrong directions, or with lines getting in the way of my calligraphy and drawings.

dotPads, like other Rhodia pads, are staple-bound. But unlike its siblings, dotPads have black covers instead of the traditional Rhodia orange. The top of the inside cover is scored so that it will fold back easily towards the back cover, but what it reveals once folded is something so cool to me - the Rhodia logo. A thicker board is placed at the back of the pad, aside from its back cover, to provide it with stronger support.

Dottie has the same smooth, white, acid-free, ph-neutral 80gsm Clairefontaine paper that I have enjoyed using in my previous ink reviews. The pages are microperforated and very easy to tear off. Like many fountain pen users, I prefer using Rhodia pads and notebooks as they are very, very friendly to fountain pen use. It's the perfect paper to use in my ink reviews!

The photo below shows all of the J. Herbin inks I got in my ink stash right now. I used an Herbin glass dip pen to test all 14 inks on a page off my Dottie.

Below are more pen and ink tests on Dottie.

A selection of fountain pens and inks...

Some of my gel pens...

A pencil and a Sharpie.

Look! No bleed! Except for the ultra-fine Sharpie that bleeds on almost anything.

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Below are some macro shots of different inks on the dotPad's paper. I realized that this is the perfect paper to test inks because most of the 'featherers' and 'bleeders' on my ink collection behaved beautifully on this paper.

Lovely Herbin inks! See how smooth Rouge Opera and Vert Pré are on the dotPad.

I'm happy to see the red undertones of Diamine Majestic Blue here because it does not always show - my guess is that the paper/pen/ink combination determines such.

Caran d'Ache is sooooo smooth.

And Noodlers too! I told you they all behaved well - no feathering, no bleeds! Yay!

The dotPad that Karen sent to me is the No. 19, measuring 8¼ × 12½. It is available in four sizes, though: 3 3/8" × 4¾", 6" × 8¼", 8¼" × 12½" and 16½" x 12 ½";  in a number of Rhodia and Exaclair retailers worldwide. Coming up in 2011: a dotted Webbie! Can't wait!

And now for a bit of experiment and fun. Here is a Stegosaurus I drew and colored on a page of my Dottie. I got it from About.com's cartooning for kids section for my niece. I just love the cute smile on this dino's face that I drew one myself. I used a Sharpie ultra-fine pen for dino's outline. Though I have not tried any of my inks for coloring, I used J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche for its body, Orange Indien for the first row of armor plates and tail spikes, and Terre de Feu for the remaining armor plates and its toe nails. I enjoyed coloring this cute dino so much! I felt like a kindergarten kid again!

Rhodia dotPads are available in different sizes to fit everyone's lifestyle. Use it for note-taking, writing lists, doing calligraphy, sketching, drawing, painting, and so on. The possibilities with these pads are endless!

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Happy Halloween!

I have always wanted to write something for Halloween but didn’t know for sure what to blog about. For an Addams Family fan and an aspiring mortician like I am, it should be a comfortable topic, but I'm still left scrounging for ideas. I don’t have happy childhood trick or treat memories to write, or incredible Halloween parties to rave about. I have never even put on a Halloween costume or carved a pumpkin. But a Halloween post must be written and so here is one.

Before proceeding to read the rest, a warning should be made that this is an incredibly 'orange' post, but definitely has nothing to do with Halloween except that it is filled with a lot of 'orange' stuff. The idea for this post came to me after I received my first Rhodia notepad, and while I was waiting to get my Caran d'Ache Saffron ink from Singapore to ink two of my orange looking pens, a laque copper NOS Parker Rialto with a medium nib, and a copper Esterbrook SJ fitted with a 1551 firm medium nib.

Now let's get the reviews done. :)

Rhodia No. 14

I got this staple-bound Rhodia notepad No. 14 as part of Exaclair's Bastille Day giveaway in July. I was surprised and happy to find other Exaclair products in the package, apart from the two bottles of J. Herbin inks they promised to send. When I took the notepad out of the envelope, it wasn't exactly love at first sight for me. Because of its orange covers. :) I preferred the Clairefontaine spiral-bound notebooks and Quo Vadis Habana that went in the package. I tried the Rhodia when the Saffron ink arrived, and I instantly fell in love with it.

For my Halloween post, I thought I'd draw bats on my Rhodia pad. Seen here with two of my Tomica toys. I got orange toys, too! :)

The No. 14 notepad measures 4.3 × 6.7 inches, and has 80 sheets of 80gsm high-grade vellum paper. The paper on Rhodia pads is very smooth, and it's a pleasure to write on it. The one I got is the lined version, and it is perfectly resistant to ink feathering and bleed, the two common problems faced by fountain pen users. The pages are microperforated so it's easy to tear a page off as needed. Rhodia notepads' covers have an almost water resistant, shiny, smooth paper/board material. I had difficulty drawing the bats using an ultrafine retractable Sharpie - the ink erases itself! :) I'd like to guess that the ink from my Sharpie pen simply dries up on the paper's surface instead of being absorbed by the paper. The front cover is scored on the exact places where they will be creased due to repeated use. The back cover has a thicker chipboard aside from the orange cover, and this gives excellent support when writing.

Writing on the Rhodia notepad is an experience. The smoothness of the paper is overwhelming. Below are writing samples of my inked pens, most of which come with medium nibs letting off wet and wide strokes.

It will always be a joy to write on Rhodia notepads. And to claim my full ownership of this little gem of a notebok, I wrote this on its first page, using an orange-colored ink.

Pens: Esterbrook and Parker

Again, this is an orange-themed post, so here are two copper-colored pens from my collection.

Pen No. 1: Esterbrook SJ with a firm medium 1551 nib.

Esterbrook pens are a fascination not only to me, but for a lot of other fountain pen enthusiasts. My Estie (that's their nickname) is a transitional pen and a double jewel demi (SJ). According to the site http://www.esterbrook.net/j3.shtml, the double jewel models came out around 1948 and were produced in vast quantities, with many showing up in the wild with perfectly pliable sacs and in perfect writing condition.

My copper Estie is from fellow Pinoy FP collector Cindy Trinidad. It has a firm medium nib, that I love but which has a remarkable scratch that almost broke my heart until I realized I must align the pen at a certain angle to comfortably write and get rid of the scratch. It writes very well in that angle, and it's among my favorite writers now. :)

Pen No. 2: Laque copper Parker Rialto with a 23k gold plated medium nib.

How do I call this pen? I got it from an office supply store in San Pablo for a price way, way below its current worth. This pen, together with a matte navy Rialto and silver Place Vendome 88 were in the glass shelves of that store since it opened business in the late 90s. I've always seen the pens but never tried them, but once when I was already into FP collecting, I asked the irritated sales clerk if I could try them, and she let me hold the pens for a while. The laque copper Rialto with the 23k gold-plated nib won my heart, but not my purse. Every weekend after that, whenever I have the chance, I'll pass by the store and look at the pens. Until that one Sunday when the store manager asked me if I'd like to buy the pens. She said she's seen me a couple of times looking at the pens, and since they've been sitting there gathering dust for the longest time, the store will give me a discounted price. Oh, boy. That afternoon, I went home with an NOS Parker Rialto.

It took me months to use the pen because I waited for any orange-colored ink to fill it with. When that opportunity came, oh, wow. The pen's medium nib is just so smooth, it's like writing with the softest butter in the world! The barrel's laque finish is excellent, and its 23k gold plated trim doesn't look cheap to me, contrary to what some people say. And though some frown at the Rialto for being a 'spruced up' Vector, I cannot find anything bad to say about this pen, except for its snap-on closure which like the Vector may wear off with time and use.

This pen is a dream come true for me. Not only it is a valuable addition to my collection, it is also a great reminder that, after all, dreams do come true.


Caran d'Ache Saffron Ink

The first time I saw bottles of Caran d'Ache inks was during my second pen meet last March. Leigh Reyes brought a couple of bottles of CdA inks and some of the pens I tried had Caribbean Sea and Saffron in them. I lusted over them since then and when C! Magazine EIC Carl Cunanan went to Aesthetic Bay last month, he kindly bought a bottle of Saffron for me, sent the bottle through our Makati office, in a black Borders bag filled with copies of their swank and hip and cool magazines. :)

Another dream come true for me: Caran d'Ache Saffron. Orange ink!!!

CdA Saffron is a beautiful orange ink. It's a happy orange color, and yet doesn't hurt the eyes when a page written with it is read. The tints of bright yellow, orange and red of the ink really looks like dried saffron stigmas dissolving in hot water. CdA Saffron reminds me of summer sunsets, of flames in my father's furnace at home and of ripe, glossy clementines.

This ink has an excellent flow, and I didn't have any problem with all four pens I tried using it. It dries fast and doesn't stain the converters of my Lamy Joy pens. On the Rhodia notepad, there was no feathering and bleed through at all. CdA Saffron is part of Caran d'Ache's nine-color Colors of the Earth line of products. CdA inks comes only in bottles, no cartridges, and a bottle contains 30ml of ink.

Here is a writing sample of CdA Saffron using all the nib sizes on my Lamy Joy set. Paper is Kokuyo loose leaf, very fountain pen friendly, very sturdy paper. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

And so ends my orange reviews. I didn't like orange before, never liked bright colors. But notebooks and inks and pens changed all that. Thanks to Rhodia, Esterbrook, Parker and Caran d'Ache, I see orange differently now. :)

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